Pursuit
by flamingocfs
Summary: James Potter, after loathing Lilly Evans for nearly 6 years, has finally changed his opinion. Now if only he can convince her of that.
"James Potter, for the millionth time, I will not go out with you. You've been asking since first year, and, six years later, my answer has not changed!"

"Bloody hell, Lilly! I've only asked - " but his speech was truncated by his friends.

"Once," Sirius Black began.

"Or twice," Peter Pettigrew added.

"A day," Remus Lupin continued.

"Every year," Sirius offered.

"Since first year," Remus finished, a triumphant smile on his pale face.

The crowd gathered around them erupted in laughter; Lilly and James in the center, both turning as red as quaffles.

After some more laughter and jeering, Lilly turned with her clique and stalked off. The noise subsided, and the crowd began to disperse, leaving Remus, Peter, Sirius, and a dumbstruck James standing on the verdant hillside.

"She's amazing," James breathed, watching Lilly as she and her friends marched away, each talking animately.

"Only one problem, mate," Sirius snickered, "She bloody hates you."

"Yeah, Prongs," Remus used James's animagus nickname, "Why'd you have to go for the one girl that doesn't like you? Seriously, yesterday I heard some Hufflepuff girls giggling about 'masculine James Potter'," at this point, he used a high-pitched voice, flailing his hands around. Sirius snickered. "But, seriously, James, do you just like her because she doesn't like you? Is it just the fact that she doesn't like you that makes you want her?" Remus stared at James with his "Answer my question because I can look inside your soul" expression. A moment of silence passed.

"Tell us about your problems, Mr. Potter," Sirius mocked a shrink, trying to ease the tension.

Everyone laughed. "C'mon, we'll be late for dinner." James diverted the attention of his friends, and everyone began grumbling about how ravenous they were or what they hoped would be for dessert as they lumbered up the hill to the Great Hall of Hogwarts School.

* * *

"Lils, I do not understand why you keep rejecting Potter. He is totally in love with you! I can just see it when he talks to you. He's not exactly a prodigy, but he is still resilient, and indigent. He's never going to stop asking," Allison smiled kindly at Lilly.

"Yeah, I would be acting like I just took a love potion if he asked me; he's hot…." Mia stirred her spoon in her soup dreamily as she pictured James Potter.

Lilly huffed. "Guys, I don't want to talk about this right now. Honestly, all I want is to finish my Charms essay and go to bed early. The absolute last thing I want is to continue to think about James Potter and his primeval manners!"

"Now, that would mean you're thinking about me, wouldn't it," James slid in the empty seat next to Lilly. She'd been so caught up in trying to avoid the git that he snuck right next to her. He slithered his quidditch-toned arms around her, but she thwarted his attempts by slapping it away and stomping off of the library. She looked back at James with a look of pure loathing in her eyes.

"Where are you going, Lils? Dessert isn't even out yet!" Mia called through a mouthful of bread.

Lilly muttered something along the lines of "James is a git," "heading to library," and "finishing Charms essay."

Lilly loved the library. She loved the way it was always quiet; she loved the way the light filtered through the translucent glass library was an anomaly in the great Hogwarts school in that it was actually neat and clean, not messy and happily chaotic. She especially loved coming to the punctilious library to do homework; everything was so much more productive when surrounded by books. In fact, she was finishing up her Charms essay, embossing it with the Hogwarts seal as a special touch.

It was only later when she was poking around for a book to smooth her essay under that she realized her mistake: she had divulged her location of her evening plans to the wretched James Potter. After dinner had ended, her worst fears were confirmed. She was innocently working on her 2 foot long essay on the history on the family of cleaning charms when someone brazenly strode through the quiet, pristine library like a bull in a china shop.

Behold, ladies and gentlemen, the insufferable James Potter, the only person who could only wear such a convivial smile in a library.

Lilly was so shocked she knocked her ink bottle over. Her quill fell to the floor in her efforts to steady the table and save her essay from the tsunami of ink that was flowing across the table. "Tergo," she said hastily as she siphoned the ink off of the table using her wand.

"Accio Quill!" James gallantly proclaimed with an overdone flourish of his wand; he knocked over several books in his arrogance. He grabbed her quill from its free float in the air and, on one knee, presented it to Lilly. "Lilly Evans, will you do me the honor of taking this quill?" He said it so maudlinly that she almost burst out laughing.

Madam Pince, the new librarian, saved Lilly from answering to this ridiculous little boy. "James Potter!" She hit him on the head with her wand. He flinched. "What the devil are you doing here?" Madam Pince was a beautiful young lady, but, nevertheless, a bit of a magisterial.

"Madam Pince," James shamelessly winked at the librarian. He ran a hand through his already disheveled hair. "Looking as wonderful as ever. Did you polish your wand? It looks lovely."

This resulted in another hit on the head. "Out!" She pointed out the library doors with her wand. James did not seem the least bit contrite; he simply flashed an unabashed smile at her before walking out. "Good seeing you, Madam!" He called as he left.

"Nutjob," Lilly said under her breath. Madam Pince laughed.

"You say that now, Lilly dear. Just you wait."

And with that, Madam Pince swept off, leaving only an ineffable compendium of thoughts in Lily's brain; she pushed them away as fast as she could.

 _No,_ she thought to herself. _James Potter is and will always be a self-absorbed git. If one thing is for certain, it is that you will never, never, NEVER like James Potter. It is one of the many immutable things of life: trees grow, people must breathe, and Lilly dislikes James._ She inculcated this in her head. Now if only she could convince him of that.


End file.
